May 2016 Newsletter

Welcome May! I spent much of last month in New York, doing some appearances, working on projects, and catching up with friends and family. It was a lot of fun and I ate well, including some good, crusty bread from Bien Cuit, as well as sipping some great cocktails: We drink so much wine in France, it's nice to indulge in the lovely spirits and liquors that are made in America, and aren't readily available in France. (Even though the French are big consumers of whiskey.)

I'm particularly fond of whiskey and spent an afternoon at Breuckelen Distilling, where they've been making whiskey and gin since 2010, which prompted me to make a new cocktail (to me) called The Chin Up, just below, whose recipe I shared in that post.

I met up with my family in New York City for Easter and I thought these Olive Oil Muffins were one of the best things I've eaten in a long time. I adapted the recipe to make them in a "home-sized" batch. If you have a chance, I urge you to give them a try. Since it's almost summer, they'd be delicious served as small cakes (or shortcakes) with strawberries, cherry compote, plums or peaches.

I ended the month of April by heading to Philadelphia for two days to...um...eat. I returned to Zahav for a spectacular meal. (Chef/owner Michael Solomonov's book, Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking just won "Cookbook of the Year" by the James Beard Foundation.) I also hit his casual Federal Donuts and while they were out of glazed donuts by late afternoon, the Za'atar Fried Chicken was probably the best fried chicken I've ever had.

We had some traditional, and non-traditional, dim sum at Bing Bing, and a brilliantly creative vegan dinner at Vedge. I also loved my pastrami sandwich, which rivaled anything in New York, at Hershel's East Side Deli in the Reading Terminal Market, a great place to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon, eating.